Cryonics Myths

Cryonics has attracted a huge amount of attention since the concept was first
promoted in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, much of the news coverage has been
based on misconceptions and statements from "authorities" who lack basic information
about the field. This page corrects some of the most widespread inaccuracies
about cryonics as practiced by Alcor.

By definition, fraud involves deception for financial gain. This myth fails on both counts.

First, cryonics is not based on deception. To the contrary, it is both scientifically credible (see the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics) and supported by the extant scientific literature (see PubMed for a list of some published
journal articles on cryonics). There are no known credible technical arguments that lead one to conclude that cryonics, carried out under good conditions today, would not work.

Second, cryonicists are not motivated by financial gain. The history of cryonics is full of individuals who made great sacrifices for the benefit of cryonics, and (so far) bereft of people enriched by it. Alcor has no company owners to profit from cryonics, salaries are modest, and the Board of Directors serves without pay. Cryonics is known for consuming the time and resources of its supporters rather than enriching them.

The reality is that Alcor is run by people who think cryonics can save lives and who want cryonics available for themselves, their friends, their loved ones, and the world in general.

Myth 2: Cryonics freezes people.

The current technology favored by Alcor is vitrification, not freezing.
Vitrification is an ice-free process in which more than 60% of the water inside
cells is replaced with protective chemicals. This completely prevents freezing
during deep cooling. Instead of freezing, molecules just move slower and slower
until all chemistry stops at the glass transition temperature (approximately
-124°C). Unlike freezing, there is no ice formation or ice damage in vitrified
tissue. Blood vessels have been reversibly
vitrified, and a whole
kidney has been recovered and successfully transplanted with long-term survival after vitrification at a temperature of -135°C.

Left: A rabbit kidney suspended in a transparent solution of vitrification
chemicals, but without vitrification solution inside it, is frozen solid
at a temperature of -140°C.

Right: Another kidney with vitrification solution inside it is preserved without freezing at the same temperature of -140°C.

In 2001, Alcor drew on published advances in the field of organ vitrification
to implement a protocol for vitrifying the human brain. This procedure is not yet reversible because of other damage (not caused by ice) including biochemical effects of the vitrification solution — but it eliminates ice damage and the preservation of fine structure is excellent.

The less advanced methods used by Alcor before 2001 still suppressed most freezing
damage. Comparisons of cryonics to frozen vegetables and other ridiculous analogies
therefore never had merit, even before the advent of vitrification.

Myth 3: Cryonics preserves dead people.

The purpose of cryonics is to save the lives of living people, not inter the
bodies of dead people. Death is a neurological process that begins after the
heart stops. A stopped heart only causes death if nothing is done when
the heart stops. Cryonics proposes to do something. In the words of a mainstream critical care expert writing for the American College of Surgeons, "In this era of critical care, death is more a process than an event.... A prognosis of death...cannot serve as a diagnosis."

Alcor uses life support
equipment to restore blood circulation to maintain brain viability after
the heart stops, ideally within minutes. This means that every cell and tissue
of a cryonics patient can be just as alive at the beginning of cryonics procedures
as any other medical patient. Care of a terminally-ill patient can legally be
transferred to Alcor as soon as the heart stops beating. Legal death declared
at that moment is simply a certification that there's nothing more contemporary
medicine can do for a dying patient.

Dying is a process, not an event. The purpose of cryonics is to intercept and
stop this dying process within the window of time that it may be reversible
in the future. The first few minutes of clinical death are certainly reversible,
even today. There are good reasons to believe that this window will extend further
in the future. That is why cryonics is sometimes implemented even long after
the heart stops. Cryonics is not a belief that the dead can be revived.
Cryonics is a belief that no one is really dead until the information content of the brain is lost, and that low temperatures can prevent this loss.

The cryopreservation phase of cryonics will not be reversible for a very long
time. But this still does not mean cryonics patients are dead. Life can be stopped
and restarted under the right conditions, and life is often mistaken for death
when resuscitation methods are not sufficiently advanced. If cryonics patients
are ever successfully recovered, they will not have been dead by definition.
They will have been unconscious, not dead. Saying cryonics cannot work because
cryonics patients are dead is a circular
argument. The statement assumes the conclusion it claims to prove!

Myth 4: Experts say cryonics cannot work.

Most experts in any single field will say that they know of
no evidence that cryonics can work. That's because cryonics is an interdisciplinary
field based on three facts from diverse
unrelated sciences. Without all these facts, cryonics seems ridiculous. Unfortunately
that makes the number of experts qualified to comment on cryonics very small.
For example, very few scientists even know what vitrification is. Fewer still
know that vitrification can preserve cell structure of whole
organs or whole
brains. Even though this use of vitrification has been published, it is
so uncommon outside of cryonics that only a handful of cryobiologists know it
is possible.

The situation is comparable to the development of space travel before World
War II. At that time, "aeronautical experts" were adamant that space travel
was impossible. Only Robert
Goddard and a few German rocket scientists knew that multi-stage rockets
could escape the earth. As is often the case, the experts best qualified to
comment on a new field are the experts working in that field. No properly qualified expert has ever said cryonics can't work. The problem is finding experts qualified to comment on cryonics.

Myth 5: No reputable scientists or physicians support cryonics.

More than 60 scientists and ethicists have signed a Scientists' Open Letter endorsing the scientific basis of cryonics. Alcor also has reputable scientists and physicians within its membership and medical
and scientific advisory boards, including scientists who have testified
before the U.S. Congress on matters unrelated to cryonics, and a member of the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In court testimony, prominent scientists
have also provided Alcor with scientist
declarations in support of cryonics.

Most cryobiologists (scientists specializing in low temperature biology) do not publicly support cryonics. This is in part because sensational publicity surrounding cryonics tends to cause mainstream accomplishments of cryobiology in reproductive biology, organ preservation, and cancer treatment to be unfairly overlooked. Conversely, most cryobiologists unfairly overlook the data and arguments that have been put forth in favor of cryonics. The history of the politicization of cryonics among cryobiologists is documented in the article: COLD WAR: The Conflict
Between Cryonicists and Cryobiologists.

Myth 6: Cryonics preserves "heads."

Alcor has no specific interest in preserving heads. Alcor's interest is preserving
people. In the entire human body, there is one organ that is absolutely essential
to personhood: the brain. Injuries outside the brain are wounds to be
healed. Injuries to the brain are injuries to who we are.

Alcor's neuropreservation
option therefore seeks to preserve the brain with the highest possible fidelity.
By directing preservation efforts toward the brain, it is possible to cryopreserve a brain with better quality than is possible if an entire body is cryopreserved. It is expected that the ability to regrow a new body around a repaired brain will be part of the capabilities of future medicine. However, removing a brain today from its protective enclosure (the skull)
would cause unnecessary damage. Alcor therefore leaves the brain protected within
the head during preservation and storage. While neuropreservation may seem strange,
it is scientifically the best way known to preserve a human life indefinitely.
Alcor preserves people, not "heads."

Myth 7: Cryonics conflicts with religion.

The goal of cryonics is to overcome serious illness by preserving and protecting
life. Cryonics is therefore consistent with pro-life principles of both medicine
and religion. Hypothermia
victims have been revived after more than an hour without breathing, heartbeat,
or brain activity. Deep
cooling is sometimes used to "turn off" patients for long periods during
neurosurgery when the heart must be stopped. Human embryos are routinely cryopreserved
and revived. If cryonics works, it will work because it is fundamentally the
same as these other forms of "suspended animation" that are already known in
medicine. Patients in these states are understood to be in deep coma, not death.

Cryonics patients are theologically equivalent to unconscious patients in a
hospital with an uncertain prognosis. Moving essays affirming the morality and
worth of cryonics have been written from both Catholic
and Protestant perspectives.
Members of diverse Christian denominations, including the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, have joined Alcor, in addition to people of other faiths.
For further information, please read Christianity
and Cryonics and other articles in the Religion
Section of the Alcor Library. Alcor welcomes written contributions from
all faiths attesting to the life-affirming nature of cryonics.

Myth 8: Cryonics is an indulgence of rich people.

Most of Alcor's membership is middle class, and funds cryonics by life insurance.
Cryonics is within reach of any healthy young person in the industrialized world
who plans for it. For a young person, the lifetime cost of cryonics is no greater
than that of smoking, cable TV, or regular eating out.

Myth 9: Cryonics is motivated by an irrational fear
of death.

If a strong will to live is no more than an expression of cowardice, then why
treat any serious illness? Interestingly, cryonics founders Robert Ettinger
and Jerry Leaf are both
veterans of military combat who have demonstrated far more courage than the
average idle critic of cryonics. A rational desire to continue living is not
the same as an irrational fear of death. In the words of biologist Peter Medawar,
"...there is no more deep-seated biological instinct than that which expresses
itself as a firm grasp upon life, there is more dignity, as there is more humanity,
in fighting for life than in a passive abdication from our most hardly won and
most deeply prized possession."